


Burn Down The Final Wall

by whereismygarden



Series: Reflections universe [4]
Category: Stargate Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Always a Different Sex, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-05
Updated: 2015-03-05
Packaged: 2018-03-16 12:00:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,035
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3487472
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whereismygarden/pseuds/whereismygarden
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An unplanned kiss.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Burn Down The Final Wall

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Reflections](https://archiveofourown.org/works/3332774) by [Potboy](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Potboy/pseuds/Potboy). 



> Thanks to Potboy for encouraging me to play around in her wonderful version of Destiny! And thanks to SeekingIdlewild for beta reading this for me. Chronologically, this is sometime early in their season 2, circa "The Greater Good."

                It was a normal day on Destiny, so far as they had normal days: slop for breakfast, a hell of a lot of difficult work, slop with a side of wilted vegetables that were appealing because they weren’t slop for lunch. Nicola had a headache brewing thanks to Elly and the gangly Lucian Alliance boy trying to have a conversation far too close to where she was working. If they hadn’t been sending her regular updates with things they’d actually accomplished between the awkward and inane chatter, she would have sent them away, but she had to admit they were being productive. That was fine, she would leave for the control interface room and work there. Wray could come and sit in the chair, make himself useful. Or Volker could, possibly.

                On the whole, Volker was less likely to be doing something important. After all, Wray could be drawing up a shift schedule for the bridge, and when it was complete, she would no longer have this problem. Nicola picked up her radio.

                “Volker,” she snapped.

                “Hi.”

                “Will you sit in the chair for the afternoon.” She didn’t make it a question.

                “Sure, I’ll be right there.” She sounded entirely too happy about the situation, and when Volker’s curly blonde head appeared in the bridge, her face looked pleased.

                “Don’t touch anything and you’ll be fine,” Nicola said, standing up. “Keep sending me progress updates,” she told Elly, and gave the Lucian Alliance programmer a dangerous smile. She barely heard Volker’s aggrieved, “yeah, sure,” as she headed out of the room, hopefully to the quiet of the control interface room. Brody didn’t talk unless you talked to her first, or something important was happening. The corridors were empty; she passed James on her way, and was nearly at her destination when she all but bounced off of Young, coming out of cross corridor.

                Her attention snapped up a few notches; she was always more physically aware of herself than usual when the colonel was around. Something about the memory of falling through a hull breach, terrified and pained, and having Evelyn waiting for her, to step forward and pull her to her bare feet, hands warm through the freezing damp of her black suit. Something about the memory of waking up with a migraine and aching eyes and it being infinitely better than waking up in the back of the SUV she remembered. The other woman made her feel both vulnerable and safe, a feeling to which she was not accustomed.

                “Hey,” Evelyn said quietly. Nicola straightened her shirt. The colonel was wearing her uniform jacket, which meant that she was busy. Both of them were always busy, but she stood there for a second and regarded Nicola, watching her with gold-hazel eyes and a sideways-canted stance that was very casual, and very attractive. She tried not to think about Evelyn’s very pretty physique more than she could avoid, because it had been unsettling, in the first few weeks, to notice another woman that way, and because Evelyn had an ex-husband, and an ex-lover (to some degree) on board Destiny. Nicola had no desire to put her foot into that interpersonal hornets’ nest, even if the resolution of her brief unnerved response to her newfound bisexuality was long past.

                “Hey,” Nicola replied, far too late. Evelyn smiled slightly, a real smile, not the angry ones she’d bit out to half the crew five or six months ago, when everything was terrible.

                “Where’s the fire?” Nicola blinked at her. “You were almost running.” She couldn’t help but exhale in a loud huff.

                “Hardly,” she retorted, deliberately sticking her hands in her pockets and sweeping her hair back over her shoulder, heart speeding up. Evelyn raised an eyebrow at her and just smiled again, in a nice way.

                “Sure,” she said, not pressing her point. Nicola cast about for something to say, now that they were both standing here.

                “How’s Bryce?” she asked. Evelyn’s face resolved into something peaceful, reflective.

                “He’s good. Chu is on babysitting duty while I check on the armory.” The contented look on her face didn’t diminish by much as she blinked and gathered herself, straightening. There was a small lock of curly hair hanging free down in front of her ear, having sprung out of her bun. Nicola stepped forward, making a reckless decision in the space of a moment, and tucked the wisp of hair behind her ear, then grabbed her by the front of her jacket and kissed her.

                Evelyn was considerably taller and broader than she was, and to kiss her required Nicola to rise onto her toes to reach her lips. She was warm and soft and hard and her lips were slightly chapped, and Nicola ran her tongue over her mouth, surprised to feel a tentative hand on her shoulder that wasn’t pushing her away. She thought she felt Evelyn’s lip press back against hers, and deepened the kiss, tasting a flash of her mouth, sweet and dark. She let go and stepped back, feeling tense. Her heart was tripping fast, cold adrenaline making sweat break out over her back and chest.

                She looked up at Evelyn, composing herself. Evelyn blinked, long lashes lowering slowly, lips parted in surprise. Nicola took a step back from her, needing to move, move away and wait for the response.

                “Well, you know where to find me if you want me,” she said deliberately, before the colonel could speak, and continued on quickly to the control interface room. Brody was there, looking through a manual in Ancient, and didn’t say anything, just nodded when Nicola came in. She pulled up the source code for the navigation programs that ran the sublight engines, wishing the Ancients had heard of annotation. The careful attention to movement in three dimensions over time and qualifiers for atmospheric shear and stellar wind and asteroid debris drew her in until the uneasy thought of her ill-considered kiss was relegated to a small, locked corner of her mind.

                She left the control interface room and didn’t go to the mess, because Young might be there. She wasn’t nervous, but she had told Evelyn she knew where to find her, and had left her to reply. It would be another move on Nicola’s part, were she to go to the mess.

                Nicola wasn’t sure what to expect if Evelyn took her up on her offer: she went to Brody’s still and took a canteen with the—well, there was no word for alcohol distilled from a species not found on Earth, or at least not in any explored galaxy. She now had a canteen full of what was mostly ethanol, and looked at it, realizing that Evelyn could not drink it, not with Bryce to feed. She poured herself a shot from the canteen and knocked it back, then recapped it and set it at the foot of the bed.

                She had, as always, an infinite amount of work to do regarding Destiny’s database and systems, so she retreated to the couchlike chair at one end of her quarters and pulled her laptop onto crossed legs. If Evelyn showed up, she would show up. If she didn’t, then she didn’t. And that meant—she wasn’t sure.

                The thought of her was annoyingly present in the forefront of Nicola’s mind. She had been nursing an attachment to or feelings for the other woman, since the colonel had broken her out of a glass and water hell. But there had been bigger problems to worry about afterwards, and nothing had ever come of it. Evelyn had given birth; Nicola had been receiving unasked-for updates via radio from Elly, who was unabashedly lurking outside the infirmary with Greer, listening to the screaming inside. She had been relieved to hear that mother and child were both well, and it must have been visible, because Park had given her a pat on the arm without asking. Bryce was three months now, and a happy baby: Nicola had held him a few times and found him charming as both his parents.

                There was a knock on the door.

                “Come in!” she called, and didn’t set her laptop aside. The characteristic chime and sweep of the doors announced Evelyn, jacket open and hair starting to wisp out of its bun once more. Nicola felt her heartrate skip up, unreasonably so, at the sight of her.

                “Hey,” Evelyn said, and stuck her hands in her pockets, glancing around. Nicola shoved her laptop to the side, standing up. There was no room for two people on the chair, not unless they really knew each other well. Damn it.

                It was more fucking difficult with women, was the main lesson she was getting from this whole situation. Knowing what to do, how to move and what to say.

                “Hey,” she returned. It would sound stupid to offer her to sit down, so Nicola just smiled at her, and resisted the urge to cross her arms protectively in front of herself. The impulse to stretch her arms back and lean to the side, which was almost universally effective with men, wouldn’t necessarily do her any good here.

                “Do you want to talk about it?” Evelyn asked, smiling back. At least she was smiling. Nicola hadn’t thought she was angry, just taken by surprise. Good.

                “No,” she said truthfully. “I’d like to kiss you again.” Evelyn’s slight smile quirked up into something brighter, and she stepped forward, shrugging out of her jacket with an even, graceful motion that made Nicola’s skin buzz. She draped it over the chair and tilted her head back just slightly, in some kind of pause, or challenge to act.

                “I can certainly do that,” she said quietly, and closed the distance between them.

                The kiss in the hallway had been initiated by Nicola, and Evelyn, she was _really_ realizing now, had definitely been taken by surprise. Because currently, she was not kissing the way she had been before. Her hands were holding Nicola’s upper arms, very gently, but Nicola felt like her entire self was being pulled towards the other woman. Evelyn was overwhelming: her lips caught and plucked at Nicola’s own, her teeth dragged over Nicola’s lips with a heady roughness, her tongue moved insistent and wet and hot in Nicola’s mouth. She was downright hard to keep up with, and Nicola was reduced to taking a few deep breaths when she broke it off. Evelyn’s eyes were sparkling with happiness, and looking very beautiful with it. It was impossible not to lean in to kiss her again, slower this time, savoring the feeling of her chapped lips parting at a press of tongue, the enticing softness of her mouth, the heat and shape of her body as Nicola pulled herself close to Evelyn.

                Standing up was quickly becoming a nuisance, and it was easy, easier than she expected, to walk towards her bed and have Evelyn follow. Evelyn’s eyes darted down to the bed as soon as their knees bumped against it, and she paused in her welcome and thorough exploration of the inside of Nicola’s mouth.

                “You’re dangerous,” was all she said, with an appreciative note in her voice, but sat down anyway, grabbing Nicola by the thighs and stopping her from moving. She wasn’t sure how long she would suffer that, but put her hands on Evelyn’s shoulders and smirked back at her.

                “Of course I am.” Evelyn’s face split into a self-satisfied grin, and she yanked Nicola forward, pulling her into her lap, thighs to either side of hers. They were pressed very close, and God but she was beautiful, and right there.

                “So am I, though, don’t forget that.” She pressed a kiss to the side of Nicola’s throat, which made her entire thought process stutter for a moment as the buzz under her skin ratcheted up.

                “Mm,” she said, deciding to agree. Evelyn’s hands slid pleasantly up her back, under her outermost shirt, somehow grounding and distracting her at once.

                “Come here,” Evelyn replied, still smiling, and leaned back and turned at once, rolling so that Nicola was underneath her, making her gasp in a deep breath and then close her eyes at how good Evelyn’s body felt pressed over hers. Then Evelyn was kissing her again, and she had enough wits about her to alternate between stroking her face and shoulders and upper arms and pulling the barrettes out of her hair. It was far longer than it had been when they all came aboard, and it was nice to touch and run her fingers through, spilling down in loose black curls. Evelyn’s left hand rubbed over her collarbone, then down to fit over her breast. She rubbed lazily with her thumb, not hard enough to feel much with two shirts and a bra in the way.

                “That would go a lot more effectively if you started taking my clothes off,” Nicola pointed out, breathless, and Evelyn sighed, shifting so that their legs were tangled up but comfortable.

                “Can you never take anything slowly in your life?” she asked, mostly amused, a little put out at Nicola’s urgency.

                She had a sudden remembrance of being in her first year at university, where her Glasgow tactic of being as unattractive and uninteresting and unnoticeable as possible had had to be scrapped immediately. She was the only woman in her college, one of the only women in mathematics, and stood out no matter what. Most of her choices in lovers had been prudent and beneficial there, until she met Gilroy, and that had been completely different. But there had been a few bad experiences, a few cases of “I fucked Nicola Rush and she’s an easy slag.” She had crushed them all academically, had gotten the ones in her college roundly mocked at dinner and had other revenges, but the memory of being told that if she slowed down, men would treat her better, prickled at her. She had made a point of never slowing down for anyone.

                Evelyn nudged her, frowning, and Nicola realized she was almost scowling.

                “What’s the matter?” she asked softly. Nicola shook her head quickly.

                “I got distracted for a second. It doesn’t matter.” Evelyn’s face smoothed out, mostly.

                “You want to stop?” Nicola shook her head again.

                “No, no.”

                “Well, in that case,” Evelyn said, and cupped Nicola’s face in her hands. “Don’t get distracted again.” She bent her head down and pressed a light little kiss to the underside of Nicola’s jaw, then another beside it, and then again, laying a trail of teasing, feathery kisses down the column of her throat, down to the hollow between her collarbones. The feel of Evelyn’s hands, her teasing lips, sparked a fizzing, restless heat that made Nicola shiver and squirm underneath Evelyn, who just leaned more of her weight down and laughed a little, lips brushing against the sensitized skin of Nicola’s throat. Then she licked hot and slow up the same path she’d gone, the suddenness of it tearing a whining sound from Nicola’s throat as her body surged up against Evelyn.

                She half expected Evelyn to laugh at her reaction, and her eyes did seem pleased or maybe proud, but she just kissed Nicola again, running one hand up into her hair and the other down her arm. Nicola worked her hands into Evelyn’s loose hair, using one leg to try and keep her close. It was pointless in that Evelyn could physically overpower her with no trouble, but it conveyed intention. Not that Evelyn seemed to be inclined to let go of her, letting her hair fall through her fingers, her other hand firm and heavy on Nicola’s side, just above her hip.

                The kissing, disappointingly, settled down in fervor. Evelyn switched to a leisurely, gentle kind of kiss which was nice in itself, but was not the searing move she’d led with. Nicola tried to rub up against her, but she just half stood up, forcing Nicola to let go of her shoulders and magnificent hair. Her fingers traced at the edge of Nicola’s hairline, stroked a few of her now-tangled strands back from her face. Evelyn had careful hands, one still warm on her side. She put her own hand over it, trying to hold her there.

                “What, are you leaving?” she said, sitting up herself, pursuing. She didn’t say, ‘I don’t want you to,’ but that was the truth. Evelyn retrieved her hairpins from the comforter of the bed, tucking them into the pocket of her trousers. Then she sat down next to Nicola, putting a hand on her shoulder.

                “You might not need to, but _I_ need to take this slowly.” She was speaking in her soft voice, looking at Nicola with her gold-hazel eyes that were sincere, and as open as a river. Nicola considered her responsibilities as colonel, as mother to a small baby. She nodded, and started untying her boots. She might as well go to bed. Evelyn was still looking at her, a small furrow between her wild eyebrows.

                “What? I thought you were going.” She waved a hand. “To Bryce, and everything.”

                “Rush,” she said, a look of exasperated patience replacing her tiny frown, “you are so much work.” Nicola finished taking off her boots, kicking them to the side. She waited for Evelyn to continue. “I will stay,” she said, wrapping a hand around the back of Nicola’s neck. “For a little while. And sit with you, because I like sitting with you.” That sent a warm thread of something bright down her spine, from her heart to her belly. She tried to relax slightly, let Evelyn rub the back of her shoulders.

                “Then why did you come in here and kiss me like that?” she asked, trying not to sound petulant about this ‘taking it slow’ approach. Evelyn’s serious gaze switched to amused and competitive at that.

                “I couldn’t let you think I wasn’t up for the challenge.” Nicola blinked.

                “What challenge?” Evelyn’s face broke into the same smile that she’d had right before she dragged Nicola into her lap, the one that Nicola was starting to find very attractive.

                “You.”

**Author's Note:**

> I spent a long time trying to come up with a title, and this one is from the Vienna Teng song "Momentum," which I like for this pairing.


End file.
